Fix: Acer Aspire One (AS1) ZG5 blank screen at startup

Seems Acer Aspire One (AS1) ZG5 can have a recurring problem, esp. if its battery is near its end of life. If it shuts down abruptly its BIOS settings seem to get corrupted and its BIOS instead of discarding them seems to freeze.

Luckily they have a way to update the BIOS via USB key at machine power up. Flashing the BIOS (even to the same version) will fix the issue. Probably resetting the BIOS NVRAM data would do the same, but since you can’t boot this is the way to do it (without fiddling with the hardware directly that is).

The process suggested by ACER in case you come across this issue is the following:

Create a recovery USB drive to update the Bios on the unit.

The specific steps to perform this recovery with the USB drive are:

1. Download & Extract BIOS_Acer_3310_A_AOA110 & AOA150 (found in  https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/60?b=1)

2. Rename the Bios name from 3310.fd to zg5ia32.fd

3. Copy zg5ia32.fd and Flashit.exe to USB flash drive.

4. Start the restoration process:

1. Plug the AC Adapter into the unit.
2. Insert the USB flash drive into a USB port.
3. Press and Hold down the Fn and the Esc keys together.
4. Keep these keys held down and press power.
5. When the unit’s power light comes on release the Fn and Esc keys.
6. After the keys have been released the power light will start to blink.
7. Let the unit run and after approximately 1 to 7 minutes, the unit should reboot.
8. Video should now be restored.

Can also see the process in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHkGkw9EE8c&feature=emb_logo

See my comment there with the newer links I have above, have fixed the links they had (since they had old broken ACER links they eventually provided the file themselves) so that you download the BIOS from ACER directly, to be safer and to be sure you always get the latest BIOS (aka 3310 at the time of writing).